nosimpleway wrote:Updates may be sparse for a while, partly because it takes a lot of play to get through ten days, and partly because spending those ten days grinding out dragons is goddamn boring.

And then nosimpleway figured that if he doesn't need money, he can just skip from day to day with an empty menu to speed along game progression.

Anyway, fish pies. Comes in herring flavor, eel flavor, and trout flavor. One more pie to go but damned if I know what it is.

A guess for that middle-of-the-steaks recipe. Turns out it's one you just don't get a hint recipe for, even if you have all the ingredients handy.

Moguani wants a particular puzzle.

In hopes of unlocking more hint recipes, I go out and gather all the rare ingredients I can without turning them into anything, in hopes of a specific odd-item combination giving me the next hint I need. It sort of works, as a Golden Fish combined with the previous seafood pies gives me the final pie recipe.

A look at the monetization list spoils the last ingredient and at least one dish I can make with it. So I need to find a sort of dragon I can tear the tongue out of, drake tongues are apparently inedible.

Of course, there's always the philosophy of "if you don't know a recipe, try using the upgraded version of an ingredient in the recipe right above it." Water to Otts Water, Tuna to Platinum Tuna, Mushrooms to Pineshrooms to Blackshrooms, and... Crab to King Crab.

After several minutes of stuffing things into jars and throwing them at Alter to see if he reacts, I concluded that the end of the bomb list is the same as the beginning of the salted vegetable list. I could have gotten a hint recipe for this at the very beginning of the game, but it just never came up.

Alfine continues to move up in her academic world.

Elias is salty about it, of course.

That's more helpful than you know, chief.

But then... ugh. Observe this creature, it walks like a man, yet it takes ketchup on its hot dog.

From nobodies to the hottest dining destination in Cassel within the span of two months, aw yeah.

I'm glad I didn't even try to transcribe the entire game script, since the game uses five or ten dialog windows to make a point. Now that Siela's the top chef in the kingdom, she's on her way to being the royal chef like she was apparently dreaming all along.

Reminders: Gustav is a shit and nobody likes him, the Royal Chef position is opening up soon, and Queen Carla is ill with some sort of incurable malady.

But Carla had an attack of whatever is plaguing her, so there will be no celebration of your victory or banquet to show off your skills.

No one knows how to cure Queen Carla, but there's this old book, see, and there's a recipe inside that's said to cure any illnesses.

For no readily apparent reason you have to leave and come back the next day for the quest line to continue. They know about two of the four ingredients for this recipe. Surprise! There are four of them, just like there are four blank spaces at the back of the Ingredients list in the Secret Catalog.

This weird peninsula that hasn't had any item, fishing spot, or monster encounters on it?

No? Nothing? Huh.

Because this quest is completely linear, of course, and I didn't get to the end-of-day conversation that moves me along that quest line. Gotta look for the Tear of Earth, first, and Lidia knows where it is: in the desert.

Since you don't need bones to make stock, the monsters inside drop, uh, seaweed broth and pieces of equipment. Hah, monsters start dropping more non-food items since I have most of the ingredients already! Double called it!

A teleport maze?

No, not really. Turns out there's a secret passage in each of the walls separating the top row of chambers. You can walk straight through the walls to the teleporter that takes you to...

There's a little window, not pictured, that lets the desert sunlight stream in on this bottle of water. And that makes it the magical Tear of Earth, rather than the blandest jug of sun tea ever.

Elias can help. Which is weird, considering up until now I thought he was an optional recruit. Can you imagine not realizing how often you have to talk to Alfine to get Elias to show up until now, and adding two weeks of going to pull that lever of the Skinner box once per day before you can proceed in the game? Ugh.

Anyway, Elias takes overnight to research what you need, and the answer is...

Looks like a Wailord, splashes like a Magikarp. I steal a Bear Suit from it somehow, then kill it. Flame Rage on Siela plus Over Kill does 700+ damage. See, I'm a mite overleveled from spending all those days killing drakes...

The reward is a new spear for Fred. Oh, and that quest item I need.

Hope they figured out the other two ingredients by now.

They did! How convenient.

The Fire Dragon Tung is probably the tongue of the basilisk that lives on Mt. Gilbert. The Holy Fruit grows on a tree in the Purple Forest, conveniently beyond Mt. Gilbert. Plot info dump: a long time ago a magic barrier was put up along the north border of Cassel, to keep the Amiellas and the humans apart. There was this Evil Dragon Lord, see, and it demanded sacrifices, and the Amiellas thought humans made good sacrifices...

Anyway, we can sneak through a gap in the barrier to reach Mt. Gilbert now.

Wow, I really wish someone had mentioned that before so I could have prepared some food to grant heat resistance and not take damage every couple of steps.

Switching from Bunny to Bear turns Siela from incredibly quick to incredibly strong. Sword Dance will oneshot almost all monsters in any battle from here on out -- and because of her levels, Siela's still fast enough to almost always go first.

Surprise, a bunch of new palette-swaps to fight.

There's a hot spring inside the volcano, where you can take an ill-advised bath for a full restore.

Red Dragons in the depths occasionally give up their tongues. I think the Fire Goliaths down here carry Magic Ropes I can steal.

Gee, thanks.

What to do!? How about I steal the sword Ragnarok from it, then cast Flame Rage on Siela and she beats it to death?

Next dungeon: the aptly (but not terribly creatively) named Purple Forest.

Huh. I haven't found any Wheat since Brusso Fields. It's not particularly rare or hard to find, but why would I go back there? I guess I can brew beer again now if I want.

...girl tied to a post? Yes.

The pointy-eared girl is livid once she regains consciousness. She was a sacrifice for the Evil Dragon Lord, see. No, shut up, it's not just an old folk tale, it's day-to-day life for the Amiellas since they're stuck on the same side of the barrier that traps the Evil Dragon Lord. Thanks for that, human scum.

So yes, Amiellas are basically elves you might not want to slap quite so much. Not quite. Close.

I can't fathom why the game would shove another character into the party this late, but here she is. She's specced like an archer-slash-support mage. She can use spears, but doesn't have much for offensive magic. She does come with Cure All and Revive, so that's nice.

I knew this was coming eventually because the game splash screen shows a bunch of characters, and when all of them except the white-haired girl joined the party I made an assumption.

The far end of the forest has a guardian. An Ent. A Guardient.

I steal... eh, something from it. I forget. Then I cast Flame Rage on Siela and beat it to death with Over Kill.

Like I do.

Wise Ent drops the Breaker, a nice new axe for Alter should I ever put him back in the party.

The townsfolk are pretty annoyed that their sacrificed missed her get-eaten-by-a-dragon date. Now the dragon will come for them! Oh me! Oh my!

The village elder gives you some more backstory as he chews you out for screwing with their sacrifice. Not too terribly long ago a human and an Amiellas fell in love, only whoops, she was the sacrifice for Evil Dragon What's-His-Name. So he rescued her. Evil Dragon got mad, so the humans had to seal him away, and whoops again, the Amiellas are stuck inside the barrier with him.

Let us follow this conversation to its inevitable conclusion.

There are only two recipes to be found in the village, and I figured out both of them a month ago.

The shop has no new recipes, either. It sells Garuda Eggs, now that those have been completely obsoleted by Dragon Eggs.

Turns out the elder came to see why we'd need Holy Fruit at all, and explained everything. Ready for the incredibly dumb resolution to all the backstory up to now?

Carla is the daughter of the Amiellas who skirted sacrifice duty and the human she loved. Somehow nobody noticed that the queen is over 100 years old by now, but whatever. Amiellas have to eat Holy Fruit regularly or they starve no matter what else they consume. So I could have skipped the other three ingredients and just come back with the Holy Fruit, but whatever. This way I took down the magic barrier (somehow) and reunited the entire country.

Not bad for a cook.

Oh yeah, that.

Heh, heh. Country pumpkin.

There's an argument, and Gustav is clapped in chains and led away for crimes not specified. Apparently being a smug dickbag is a crime in Cassel.

Fighting drakes -- I'm at Gilbert Pass already, why not -- is hastened somewhat now that Siela can oneshot them all with Sword Dance. Gathering meat and eggs is slowed somewhat by Siela oneshotting them with Sword Dance and not killing them with Butcher. It's about a wash.

I guess I could have brought Milija along, and gathered the EP she needs for her last couple of skills. Oh well.

Somehow the restaurant is still getting customers despite having had no food to serve for the past week and a half.

Anyway, the thrust of the cutscene is that Milija is really old.

Returning the next day, we give the guy the riceball he wanted. He goes crazy for it, despite it just being... rice.